Spy Gear to Thwart Piracy for Next James Bond Film

Slack AliceSlogger, Infosecurity Magazine

What’s the best way to prevent piracy when it comes to super-hot blockbusters, like the upcoming James Bond installment?

Super high-tech surveillance equipment, of course.

As the world gears up for Spectre, the final installment of Daniel Craig’s version of Bond (and I have a feeling that this slogger is not alone in going through the various stages of grief over that one), UK cinema staff are ready to do their part. Specifically, to prevent the inevitable recording and subsequent sale of videos taken by cell phone of the movie on the screen.

The grainy mobile recording biz is actually all too common when it comes to both online streaming piracy and “DVD” sales in emerging markets…and movie staff are going full-on “Q” department to thwart it.

To wit: Cinema staff are being issued advanced night-vision goggles, and will roam auditoriums looking for the tell-tale signs of people making crappy yet lucrative recordings via mobiles.

The spy-tastic approach is increasingly necessary, according to those that follow the supply side of piracy. The Telegraph reports that movie pirates in the UK are “resorting to increasingly clandestine tactics to avoid being caught, hiding their recording devices in holes cut into popcorn cartons or covering their phones with a sock to hide the lit screen.”

That’s pretty enterprising—and hard to catch. Plus, the situation is made worse by a competitive aspect to all of this—police say that it’s common for young men to try to one-up each other in their exploits. Consider Philip Danks, who is serving 33 months for filming Fast And Furious 6 in a cinema and selling copies on Facebook.

“Seven billion people on the planet and I was the first,” he bragged…before the copyright cops came knocking.

Kieron Sharp, director general of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, said that this kind of SWAT-like approach is becoming the norm.

"They still do the sweeps around the auditoriums with the night vision glasses regardless of the film,” he told the Telegraph. “But sometimes extra security is put in place for things like Bond.”

Indeed. And one can only hope that they then swing into action with approaches that involve rappel lines and grappling hooks. It’s only fitting.